rights:/rʌɪts/ (n) 1. that which is morally correct, just, or honourable.
2. a moral or legal entitlement to have or do something.
(v) 1. restore to a normal or upright position.
2. restore to a normal or correct state.

rites:/rʌɪts/ (n) 1. a religious or other solemn ceremony or act.
2. a body of customary observances characteristic of a Church or a part of it.
3. a social custom, practice, or conventional act.

riots:ˈrʌɪəts/ (n) 1. a violent disturbance of the peace by a crowd
2. an impressively large or varied display of something.
3. (informal) a highly amusing or entertaining person or thing.
(v) 1. take part in a violent public disturbance.

ain’t i woman

"That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen them most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?"

homeless in lenasia… “a better life for all?”

yini ikhaya? a place we can call home… my legacy. this is the first home to be demolished. to the left, the mattress we all saw on tv still lies across the street.

and still i can’t understand how a government can deliberately make its citizens homeless…

reduced to rumbles homes that are probably worth a hundred grand. people sold cars, saved up, some of these homes were built with loans.

the government has no intention to compensate these people who were robbed by housing officials. they have no intention to help these people find other homes. as one brother said to me, when he visits his parents in the Eastern Cape this December he might as well not return because he no longer has a home in Lenasia. he doesn’t have money, he sold his car so he could have this home and now he also owes the bank for the loan he got to build his home.

this morning the government is supposed to be back in Lenasia to demolish more houses and when they are done there with 113 homes…

some homes survived the day, they only broke down their perimeter walls. a silent message that the house is next. the woman who lives her barricaded herself in the house. every morning more and more of her bricks disappear.